Scott Nishimura snishimura@bizpress.net
Fort Worth, Arlington, and Dallas rank among the nation’s top five “Best Cities to Find a Job,” according to the WalletHub personal finance social network.
Fort Worth ranked No. 1, Arlington, fourth, and Dallas fifth in an analysis based on 13 metrics, including job openings per capita, fastest falling unemployment, and home buying power, WalletHub said.
Arlington people beware: WalletHub may need a small geography lesson, identifying the Texas Rangers’ newly named Globe Life Park in Arlington “Global Life Stadium” and the “football stadium” as being in Dallas.
“The leader of the Lone Star State’s impressive pack of bountiful job markets, Fort Worth boasts the nation’s fifth fastest-falling unemployment rate, the fourth larger proportion of full-time employees, and the second most affordable housing,” WalletHub said.
“Such dynamics, combined with the lack of either a state or local income tax for which Texas is renowned, are enough to make up for middle-of-the-pack rankings when it comes to industry variety, health care coverage, and the percentage of the workforce living below the poverty line.”
Of Arlington, WalletHub said the Texas Rangers “aren’t the only group that’s been hot in recent years.
“The city’s workforce has been heating up as well, and it now boasts the second most job openings per capita in the country. The country’s fourth most affordable housing market and nonexistent tax burden also help make top-tier starting salaries go as far as possible in Arlington. Such dynamics seem to foretell significant job seeker interest in the area, at least among those who can tolerate average summer temperatures of 96” degrees.
And of Dallas, WalletHub said, “it’s not often that Dallas – where bigger is better with everything from the headwear to the football stadium – ranks third in the pantheon of anything, let along the hierarchy of cities within its own state.
“But Dallas’ employment landscape is the envy of all but four major cities in the U.S., and considering the economic rollercoaster that the past few years have taken us on, that’s certainly something to be proud of.
“Dallas companies pay the country’s seventh highest starting salaries, are the second most reliant on full-time employees, and can use the nation’s ninth most affordable housing market as a major selling point to attract top talent.” Other Texas cities making the ranking: Austin, sixth; Houston, 10; Corpus Christi, 12; San Antonio, 23; and El Paso, 42.
In the region, Tulsa ranked 21 and Oklahoma City, 39.
Among the various metrics, Arlington scored second in most job openings per capita, at 13.44.
Fort Worth scored second in fastest falling unemployment between 2012 and 2013 at 6.67.
In annual home buying power based on median salary, Fort Worth was second, Corpus Christi third, Arlington fourth and San Antonio fifth.
Other metrics included average annual income; median starting salary; industry variety, a measure meant to determine strength of job market for the “average job seeker, independent of background or industry focus;” and workforce growth.